2020 1st-rounder joins White Sox player pool
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CHICAGO -- The first professional baseball experience for Garrett Crochet, the White Sox top pick in the 2020 Draft, will be as part of the team’s player pool satellite camp at Schaumburg Boomers Stadium with workouts beginning July 15th.
It remains to be seen whether the University of Tennessee product, a left-handed hurler with the fastball near 100 mph, makes the jump from the No. 11 overall pick to the Majors in a couple of months, much as Chris Sale did with the White Sox in 2010.
“In an environment like this, it's tough to rule anything out,” said White Sox director of player development Chris Getz of Crochet’s chances during a Tuesday Zoom call. “Garrett is a talented player, but the focus is truly just to get his foot in the door here and get around our guys, and we'll go from there. With talented players like himself, I hate to rule anything out.”
Forty-four players originally joined the White Sox for Summer Camp and have been working out since July 3 at Guaranteed Rate Field, including six straight days of intrasquad action. Sixteen players were announced Tuesday, bringing their overall total to 59 with right-handed pitcher Michael Kopech, the White Sox No. 3 prospect per MLB Pipeline, electing not to participate this season.
The 16 new additions are:
• Right-handed pitchers (7): Zack Burdi, Ryan Burr, Matt Foster, Brady Lail, Alex McRae, Bryan Mitchell, and Jonathan Stiever
• Left-Handed pitchers (5): Crochet, Bernardo Flores Jr., Jacob Lindgren, Adalberto Mejía and Bennett Sousa
• Catchers (1): Seby Zavala
• Outfielders (3): Micker Adolfo, Luis González and Blake Rutherford
Burdi, Foster, Flores Jr., Zavala, Adolfo, and Rutherford are part of the White Sox 40-man roster. The goal of this group is to provide depth for the Major League squad and supplement that roster, when necessary, along with the other players who don’t break camp as part of the Opening Day 30-man squad.
These first couple of days at the satellite camp will be about getting players comfortable following their travel like Day 1 and Day 2 of Spring Training, before adding more to the workload. The White Sox will need to get very creative in what they do at Schaumburg with no outside competition.
“That’s what our staff is there to do,” Getz said. “We want our players to feel very confident when they are called upon to come over here, and I think there’s some ways to help that and build that confidence for the guys to really perform when they are here.
“Generally speaking, as we approached putting together the 60-man pool, we wanted to make sure we had proper depth to help our Major League club with the hope, of course, that things normalize, we get an idea of how players are reacting to certainly what’s going on in our world right now, but also a quicker ramp-up for a season. Now, with the hopes of things kind of being back to normal so to speak or getting comfortable, normalized, then perhaps the group that we have in Schaumburg will evolve a little bit.”
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With no Minor League season, there’s an element of development also involved in this whole process. An example such as Crochet, who pitched only 3 1/3 innings of collegiate ball this past season before agreeing to a $4,547,500 signing bonus, could bridge both areas.
“We want to build him up appropriately,” Getz said, "but we also just want him to get comfortable with being a White Sox. We'll certainly start with one inning and tack on two innings. There's some pitch development things we're certainly going to work on with Garrett.
“He does have present Major League stuff, without question, but our job on the development side is to get the most out of this player. It's really about getting through Day One and seeing where a Major League season goes. I don't think we need to necessarily focus on a Major League radar for Garrett.
“Really, it’s about getting him here, getting him comfortable with our staff ... getting to know our philosophies and watch him develop this summer,” Getz added. “That was the plan for Garrett. Beyond Garrett, I would say most of the guys could be looked at as closer to immediate help. Like I said also, the group will evolve over time once things get a little bit more steady and we are comfortable with the rosters we have.”